Great Run, Pity About The Roads.

        Well it seems that this glorious spell of wonderful weather is about to fizzle out in a few days time, we will be back to what we know best, a bit on the cold side, windy and wet. However it was great while it lasted, who knows, perhaps it will come back again, SOON.

Ward Toll, a cross roads and a garden centre. 

       I took the bike along another road that I haven't been for a few years, up past Ward Toll, turn right and head down to Buchlyvie, turn right along the road from Stirling, then soup and coffee at Ballot Toll. For some reason I can't find the name "Ballot Toll" on the google map.

Buchlyvie, needs to see to its roads.

      The decision to take the B road to Buchlyvie was a big mistake, for about 1-1.5 miles, the road surface is atrocious, difficult to describe it other than there must be a law against call a piece of ground like that "A Road". you then get a couple of miles of fairly decent surface, then it gets worse than the first bit. The section after you go over the wee hump bridge and start to climb up to the main road, defies description. I thought as I turned onto the main road from Stirling that it would be a good surface, it is not, for the first mile or so, it is a nightmare, it does eventually turn into what could be called "A Road". I would recommend that anybody with a decent road bike should not go anywhere near the Ward Toll to Buchlyvie road.

Ballot Toll, one of my favourite watering holes when out on the bike.

      From Ballot Toll,  I went on to Drymen, then on through Croftamie and on to Glengoyn, famed for its single malt whisky.

Ptarmigan Pub Drymen.

Glengoyn Distillery.

       Despite the miles of excuses for roads, it was a wonderful day out.

Another view from Drymen Square.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow Peoples Press.

 

    Over the years, anarchists and libertarian socialists have produced a mountain of zines, newspapers, serials, etc. and those in Glasgow are no exception. The vibrant people of our city have added more than their fair share to that legacy of literature, detailing the struggles, anger, dreams and hopes of the ordinary people. We at Spirit of Revolt are very proud to have collected a considerable number of these publications and are working hard to make them available on line, so that those involved in struggle today, can learn from the past, and grasp the fact that their struggle is not a new struggle, but the same struggle as previous generations.

         The latest paper to be digitalised by Spirit of Revolt, and made available for you to read on line is one that, though there were not a tremendous number of issues, 11, in fact, it was popular and influential, namely Glasgow Peoples Press. All 11 issues are held in our archive and are there for you to read on line, see T-SOR 3-56-6 John Cooper Collection. The latest addition to our Read of the Month gives a short summary of this paper, highlighting issue No.6. Have a look, we know you will find it all very interesting and we hope helpful in your struggles.

 Image from Glasgow Peoples Press No.11.

       I'm sure there are a lot of anarchists/libertarian socialists etc. out there and they may have a bob or two in their pockets, if so, and you like what we are doing, remember, it's your history, perhaps you could make your way to the Contribute page. Any small donation, a one of, or a regular direct debit, a couple of quid or so, will be gratefully accepted, and can be the life blood that keeps us going, doing what we think, and I hope you think, is a very important part in the preservation of the history and heritage of the people of this city. Go on, look at our site, and ask yourselves, do you want to help.

Visit ann rky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Solidarity Is Our Weapon.

 

       In this country, we all know that the justice system is served by police, who have given us the Birmingham 6, Hillsborough, and Orgreave, to mention a few. We also know that this is not unique to the UK police, but pans out across the globe as part and parcel of the way the various states do things. In Greece there has been the long running case of anarchist Grigoris Tsironis and comrades. Held in prison on a serious of robbery charges, which  have now been dropped, thanks to the international support and the fact that it was obviously a frame-up. Of course the state doesn't give up easily, the robbery charges dropped, he and his comrades are now roped into the anti-terrorism laws, and under investigation about terrorist organisations. If you're a nuisance to the state, they will keep after you and keep trying to silence you. That is why we must always show our solidarity with those who stand up and face down the system. It is obvious that they don't do it for their own well being, their fight is our fight and demands our support.

This from Act For Freedom Now:

        I call, therefore, the solidarity movement to rally up forces with its strong and mass presence in the judicial battles of all the comrades whose cases are now underway. Solidarity and support by the movement cannot be given partially or selectively.
      Comrades who refuse the charges attributed to them and fight for their collapse, deserve our solidarity. Comrades who claim responsibility for their acts and with dignity and political arguments fight their battle inside the court rooms, deserve our solidarity.
Finally, comrades who discredit civil justice and spit in the faces of judicial employees, do not bargain for their freedom and they themselves create the preconditions in order to regain it, deserve the same solidarity.
       Let us perceive, even if it sounds romantic, that we are different pieces of the same puzzle, that when connected, our vision for the revolution will appear.
        Let’s look ahead and gaze this vision and let’s leave the mistakes and hostilities in the past.
Solidarity is our weapon
Not a step back…

NO COMRADE HOSTAGE IN THE HANDS OF THE STATE
FREEDOM TO POLITICAL PRISONERS
AND IMPRISONED FIGHTERS
STRENGTH TO THE WANTED COMRADES
Grigoris Tsironis
Koridallos Prisons
4/6/2016

Read the full article HERE: 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk
 

Another Capitalist Success Story!!!

        So Mike Ashley, in front of a committee of MPs, admits he is a bit of a rascal. Accused of paying below the minimum wage, too many zero hours contracts, the vast majority of the warehouse staff are agency workers, running a climate of fear in his warehouse, involving the staff in long, time consuming searches, after their clocked off time, administering a, six strikes and you’re out regime. The strikes being, chatting too much, taking too long in the toilet, and other such vile crimes. Also being penalised if you are as much as one minute late. 

           The publicity has seen the price of the shares in his company, Sports Direct, take a tumble, down 45% on last year. Could this be the next capitalist success story after Philip Greens magnificent job at BHS? He has promised is accusers, the MPs, that he will put all these matters right, that of course could hit his profit margins, which in turn will keep pushing the price of his shares down. Could this be time to pull the plug and walk away with his millions, earned from all that below minimum wage, zero hours contracts, and agency workers, climate of fear, routine that he followed so faithfully. Of course, if so, we will get the usual, “difficult trading conditions” was the cause of the collapse. Whatever the outcome of this little exercise with the MPs, what I don’t expect is that Sports Direct will become a pleasant and well paid place to be employed.

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Dangerous Infection Of Christian Fundamentalism.

       Our esteemed lords and masters, clinking their glasses in the subsidised bars of that citadel of imperialism, The Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption, along with our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, are always spewing out verbal sewage about extremists. Of course they always mean the Islamic variety, they never mention the other viral infection on this planet, the Christian variation. This particular sickness is widespread in the US, but is slowly infecting greater numbers here in the UK. Thanks to the Oxbridge cabal of millionaires, so called independent schools are spring up all over the place. In a sane world this would be no bad thing, but when the agenda is set by religious fundamentalism, blind faith, anti-science and egos backed of with big money, the result is far from desirable.
         It has now come to light that there are an increasing number of “faith schools” of the Christian fundamentalist variety, popping up in this country, the most virulent variety being those under the banner of Accelerated Christian Education schools, (ACE) these establishments are a variation of an "education" system, (translates as propaganda system) spawned and developed in the Southern Baptist states of the US, and among the poison they spread is creationism as fact, and women’s submissive position to men. Children are taught in divided slots partitioned from each other. This fundamentalism is extremely dangerous and can poison the minds of children who grow into adults with a closed and bigoted value structure, creating more and deeper unbridgeable chasms in our society.
         Religion must be taken out of education, be should demand education, not indoctrination. Believers can teach at home, or go to their palaces of hallucination, to spout to the willing, but they should never be allowed to take children and blind them to the real world we live in, with their poisonous bigotry and illusionary world of invisible people and magic.

An interesting article from The Independent: 

         A rare photo inside an Accelerated Christian Education school, from the 1980s. Former pupils say the same classroom format is still used in the UK today

  ------ The textbooks used by the schools have also been criticised for providing allegedly inappropriate material. A number of textbooks seen by The Independent and which are reportedly used in schools appear to include worrying content about gay people, women’s rights and also appear to teach creationism as fact.
       One textbook says: “Homosexual, adjective: having unnatural sexual feelings towards one of the same sex… Homosexual activity is another of man’s corruptions of God’s plan.------

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Bumpy Road To Aberfolye.

 

        Still the sun shines, and our dour Scottish personality is already saying, "Aye, we'll pay for this", but grab it while we can. Another glorious day temperature in the 20's and a light wind, magic. After last weeks nasty experience on the Loch road, I decided to go for the Trossachs and settled for Aberfoyle. It has been a few years since I took the bike to this lovely spot. It was a very pleasant run though not much in the way of flat roads. However, again the road surface raises its ugly head. After you go round the round-about at the Rob Roy Inn, the road is a disgrace, as the main road into Aberfoyle, it is broken, potholed, rough  and a danger to cyclists. You have to suffer about half to three quarters of a mile if unrelenting bangs and bumps, on a narrow busy road. I don't know if it is a fact that many motorists are unaware of what goes on under their car while driving over these road surfaces, and they just accept it, but it is costing them money on damaged shock absorbers and tyres. Perhaps if they wake up to that fact they may complain more and get something done about the problem. Of course you face the same road on the way out of Aberfoyle. Never the less, a beautiful day out.

About four years since I visited this lovely spot on the bike.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

No Need For A Shepherd.

The Disobedient.

The shepherd directs, and the flock move,
always with the help of the dog
even sheep can be disobedient.
The disobedient must be controlled
their desire to take their own path
could be the end of the need for a shepherd
and sheep would graze where they will,
there would be no flock
just similar beasts grazing together.
Perhaps we should look at the disobedient
asking why they want to be so,
could it be that they know something we don’t.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

BHS, Capitalist Success Story.

 

       Our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, are reporting the recent BHS event as if something had gone wrong. As far as capitalism is concerned it worked out perfectly. A guy buys it, makes a fortune and bleeds it dry, then walks away, much richer than when he bought it, capitalism at its best. Is there any idiot out there who thinks that BHS was all about the employees and the customers? These latter two are just components, just the disposable ball-bearings that make the system function, but can be dumped and a replaced by a new set. The BHS can be registered as one of the UK's greatest capitalist success stories, all that effort by the people, creating all that wealth for a small bunch of parasites. Sure some shareholders might have lost some of their filthy loot, but they made a fortune over the life of the company, and the really big fish made a real killing.

 Philip with one of his buddies.

         Let's look at the facts, a guy, let's say Philip Green, buys this "enterprise" and over 15 years he pays his wife £400 million in dividends, that averages out at around £28 million a year, and to add some cream to their cake, it is channelled through a tax haven. No sense in giving any of it back to the people who created that wealth. There are other avenues where the shysters can make more money, that illusion known as the "pension fund". This is where the employee and the employer put money aside so that when the employee retires there will be something there to help them get by. In the case of this particular, "pension fund", when our friend Philip bought the company, its "pension fund" was in surplus to the extent of £5 million. After his 15 years of plundering, wheeling and dealing, slicing and dicing, "stewardship", that £5 million surplus, is now a whopping £571 million deficit. So having cleaned the pot out, and saddling the company with a massive £1.6 billion debt problem, our bold entrepreneur, sells the company to a serial bankrupter, for £1.

 Philip's wee boat, paid for by people like you.

        Meanwhile, Philip walks off into the sunset, with an estimated £3.6 billion bank balance, to take control of his new £100 million+ super yacht, with some serious Bahamas sailing to think about. Far from being a disaster, BHS is text book capitalism, for other "entrepreneurs" to follow. We have seen it in the past, and we will see it in the future, as long as we tolerate this stinking system of greed and plunder. So get used to it, capitalism, milk the masses and live happily ever after, Ah, the beauty of capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Playing For Change.

       Not a new one, but I posted this just because I like it, so hope you do also.

Uploaded on Feb 5, 2009
          Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music. Join the movement here: http://www.playingforchange.com/membe....
        From the award-winning documentary, "Playing For Change: Peace Through Music", comes an incredible rendition of the legendary Bob Marley song "One Love" with Keb' Mo' and Manu Chao. This is the third video from the documentary and a follow up to the classic "Stand By Me" and the incredible "Don't Worry." Released in celebration of Bob Marley's birthday on February 6th, this tribute to the legend is performed by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe.
        "Playing For Change Songs Around The World" CD/DVD available now at http://www.playingforchange.com/marke.... Order the "War/No More Trouble," "Stand By Me," "Don't Worry," and "One Love" videos and the new Songs Around The World album now at itunes! http://tinyurl.com/pfcitunes
         We are honored to announce the release of PFC3: Songs Around The World - available everywhere now! This CD/DVD set highlights the passion and talent of 185 musicians from 31 different countries. Buy PFC3 Here: http://playingforchange.com/marketpla...
JOIN THE MOVEMENT
http://www.playingforchange.com
https://www.facebook.com/PlayingForCh...
https://twitter.com/playing4change
http://instagram.com/playing4change
        See the PFC Band live: http://playingforchange.com/live
To learn more about the work of the PFC Foundation, visit http://www.playingforchange.org

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Soil Soaked in Blood, All For The Power Of Empire.

        The battle of The Somme anniversary is coming up, July 1st. 1916, no doubt the privileged parasites that hold the reins of power, will want to show this as a battle of glory and honour, but there is no glory in war. As for the Somme. it was a slaughtering field where the blood of youth was poured into the soil to gratify a bunch of psychopathic pompous idiots, who saw war as some sort of board game.The Somme, Wikipedia:

 The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme, German: Schlacht an der Somme), also known as the Somme Offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 November 1916 on both sides of upper reaches of the River Somme in France. It was the largest battle of World War I on the Western Front; more than one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

ONE MILLION DEAD OR WOUNDED, for what? For empire, wealth and power for the privileged parasites that lord it over us. This description of The Lonsdales, one of the units involved in this carnage for power, is just a glimpse of what was repeated and repeated.

         Few units in the British army can have fared worse on 1 July 1916 than the Lonsdales. Formed of volunteers from north-west England swept up in the outpouring of patriotic fervour at the start of the First World War, the 850-strong battalion joined the walking-pace advance on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. 
       Within hours, they had lost more than 500 men. Not only the commanding officer – shot in the head as he leapt from a trench – but the second-in-command, the adjutant and every one of the company commanders had been either wounded or killed.
        The survivors, next put to work digging up the remains of their friends, lived in a miasma of decomposing bodies and faced continuous shelling without sleep. A week after the massacre, they were ordered to go over the top again. This time they refused. Command was apoplectic. At the troops’ request, Lieutenant George Kirkwood, the battalion’s medical officer, was despatched to see them. He saw at once that the men were at their nerves’ end, and testified in a written report that most of them were suffering from the mysterious new ailment known as “shell shock”.

          DANDELIONS written and sung by STEVE O'DONOGHUE. Steve will be one of the performers at HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN YET? THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SOMME, Sunday 19 June, Heath Street Baptist Church, London NW3 1DN, remembering one of Britain's most disastrous conflicts through words and music. Co-hosted by No Glory in War and Stop the War Coalition. BOOK HERE: http://www.noglory.org

 

Dandelions, The Lyrics:

Now Arthur was only a young cub
A brave lion and merely fifteen
But with the rest of his pack
He was sent to attack
To a war that was cruel and obscene
But those lions fought hard and fought bravely
While the donkeys just grazed in a field
They had no sense of shame for their barbarous game
And the thousands of lions they killed

And when he saw them marching up Whitehall
I remember what old Arthur said
He said the donkeys are all wearing poppies
So I shall wear dandelions instead

Now every remembrance sunday
Well I pause at eleven o'clock
And I remember those dandy young lions
And those donkeys and their poppycock
Cos they've taken those beautiful poppies
And they use them to glorify war
Well I remember those dandy young lions
And I don't wear a poppy no more

And when he saw them marching up Whitehall
I remember what old Arthur said
He said the donkeys are all wearing poppies
So I shall wear dandelions instead

Now if you take an old dandelion
And just blow it quite gently he'd say
You can see all the dreams of those soldiers
In the seeds as they just float away
But then the wind takes hold of those seeds
And they rise and quickly they soar
Like the spirit of all those old soldiers
Who believed that their war would end war

And when he saw them marching up Whitehall
I remember what old Arthur said
He said the donkeys are all wearing poppies
So I shall wear dandelions instead

Cos those lions were dandy young workers
Who those donkeys so cruelly misled
And if the Donkeys are gonna wear poppies
I shall wear dandelions instead.

And when he saw them marching up Whitehall
I remember what old Arthur said
He said the donkeys are all wearing poppies
So I shall wear dandelions instead

Source: No Glory in War

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Everything Is Fine! Keep Shopping.

     There are a limitless number of ways and means of spreading ideas, and we have to continually trawl the stream to find new and interesting ways of reach people with our ideas. You can always come up with your own or borrow one.

This is one from Adbusters

       Last week we challenged you to create widespread cognitive dissonance around the world by putting our Everything Is Fine, Keep Shopping poster up in malls everywhere.
        Cognitive dissonance is a high tension state between two opposing beliefs. It works like a pie in the face, first inducing confusion, then anger, and finally an intense desire to correct the imbalance — to recover the consonance that has been lost.
           It’s an incredibly transformative force . . . a way to get people to reconsider what they hold dear and what they take for granted . . . the jolt that gets people to rethink their life choices.
         Cognitive dissonance feels like low level grass roots fun, but it could be a way to kickstart a world revolution: we ambush people, first in malls, then in gasoline stations, then in supermarkets and all over the physical and mental environments . . . we inject radical ideas into people’s heads and set the tone for a new world order to come.
          Culture Jammers have always messed with consumer culture, and that’s what we are doing with this latest jam. Already posters have gone up in malls and schools around the world. Let’s keep the dissonance going for another week. Print the poster, put it up somewhere and share it with your friends. Check out some of our other spoofs below – or create your own. And send us pictures of your jams and let us know how it feels.

  

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Crime That Was Iraq, Blew The Region Apart.

        Anybody with a grain of sincerity accepts that the invasion of Iraq was raw Western imperialism in all its savagery, it was nothing more than a brutal grab for resources, spearheaded by today's leading imperialist power, America. Of course the UK and other minions of the American empire wanted a slice of the plunder, so the played their part. The architects of that vicious onslaught on the people of Iraq have now slipped into wealthy sidelines of the empire, to live out their lives in opulence, but the people of that region are still in the turmoil of war and slaughter. All this will always be dressed up as bring down a dreadful dictator and bring democracy to the people of Iraq. In that region soaked in blood, the flower of democracy has still not seen the light of day. The savagery and the viciousness unleashed by the Western imperialists has spread across the whole region. Millions live in constant terror, trauma, poverty, death and destruction, so that the West can control the resources of that region. 

      The Chilcot inquiry is meant to throw some light on the reasoning behind the whole Iraq disaster, but what will be revealed, and what will be concealed, for so called "security reasons". The establishment will do its utmost to make sure that the truth of this human disaster will never be revealed to the public.

This from Stop The War:

The People's Chilcot Tribunal
8th June, 3-8pm
Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre Auditorium
17-25 New Inn Yard London EC2A 3EA
London

          The date of the publication of the Chilcot report is fast approaching. It is clear that the establishment will try to deflect attention away from the examination of the lies and the crimes which the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq entailed.
          They will also try to hide the real economic and geopolitical motives behind the invasion. Under Western occupation, Iraq was treated as a "blank slate". Paul Bremer, the US-imposed governor of occupied Iraq, quickly imposed a neo-colonial constitution which forced open Iraq's markets to Western corporations and enabled them to privatise/plunder the major Iraqi companies and natural resources, including oil of course.
         Stop the War Coalition is hosting a People's Chilcot Tribunal to establish who was to blame for Iraq's ongoing tragedy, including over a million deaths, the spread of fundamentalism and conflict across the region, including millions of desperate refugees who are still fleeing for their lives from a region ravaged by war. There will be testimony from a wide range of people including former UN envoy to Iraq Hans von Sponeck, ex-soldiers Ben Griffin and Geoff Martin, writer Tariq Ali, Iraqi dissident and lecturer Sami Ramadani, journalist and playwright Richard Norton-Taylor, political commentator Peter Oborne, Stop the War convenor Lindsey German, CND general secretary Kate Hudson and Peter Brierley from Military Families Against the War.
         Tickets are selling fast so make sure you book your place now. Please invite your friends as well. We will also hold a public meeting the day after the report is released.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

The Engine Still Runs.

        After Sunday's fall at Tarbet, I went to bed with a stiff left knee and a tender bruise on my left calf, I suppose it is where my calf hit the pedal, or the pedal hit my calf, I'll leave that intellectual debate for later. I woke up on Monday morning with a stiff left knee, a darker tender bruise on my left calf, a stiff left wrist and a slight soreness on my left shoulder. This lead me to the conclusion that at my age when you fall, you don't bounce, you crunch.

      I decide that Monday and Tuesday would be, a take it easy couple of days, but Wednesday was so beautiful that I decided to to test the body to see if it still worked. So off I went on the bike, what a wonderful day, a short run out to Campsie Glen, with the usual eating ritual, and felt great, no ill effects. Back home in reasonable style with a smile on my face. Still the odd ache here and there, but the engine still runs.

        No, this is not Germany, it is Haughhead at Campsie Glen, one of those weird places where strange people go to talk to their imaginary friend, who lives in an invisible house in the sky.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

London, The Stinking World Capital Of Corruption.

          The establishment in the UK, backed up by that babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, are always spouting how the UK is the champion of righteousness and the guardian of morality, we are that beacon of honesty, showing the rest of the world how it should live. Remember Cameron's remark about having got two of the world's most corrupt countries, Afghanistan and Nigeria to that comedy show, the anti-corruption summit? Of course you and I know that this is no more than a charade, a wonderful illusion of smoke and mirrors. The City of London is mired in stinking financial filth, it is the world’s biggest gambling casino for illicit loot. It is always heart warming to hear this sort of truth coming from somebody who knows a thing or two about corruption. Roberto Saviano, who has been under police protection ever since exposing the activities of the Naples syndicate, the Camorra, has publicly stated that London is the corruption capital of the world.

       In an attack on how London helps criminals launder their money, Roberto Saviano, who has been under police protection since exposing the activities of Naples crime syndicate the Camorra, told an audience at the Hay Festival: “If I asked you what is the most corrupt place on Earth you might tell me it’s Afghanistan, maybe Greece, Nigeria, the South of Italy, and I will tell you it’s the UK.
        He has now been backed by the campaign group Transparency International, whose head of UK advocacy and research Rachel Davies told The Independent: “It’s absolutely true that the UK is one of the leading financial centres for the laundering of corrupt money from overseas, whether through the property market, luxury goods or other sectors.
       “The UK has been a prime location for stashing away illicitly gained wealth, as anti-money laundering systems are weak and sectors such as UK property represent a safe investment, as well as a place to hide corrupt money.”

Read the full article HERE:
       It takes a lot of corrupt financial advisers to have guided London to that pinnacle of depravity, a lot of “city firms” eagerly shuffling the illicit loot, for a fee of course, and encouraging other dodgy millionaires/billionaires to bring their stash to London, with the guarantee that it will be safe from prying eyes. This of course is capitalism, exploited/corrupt wealth safely stuffed into shady deals to grow fatter and fatter. London may hold the world title, but the entire system stinks from the stench of greed and corruption.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk